


It's a Wonderful World, Calli

by soraskeyblade



Category: Virtual Streamer Animated Characters
Genre: Action & Romance, Drama, Drama & Romance, F/F, Fluff, Grim Reapers, Phoenixes, Romance, Teasing, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:06:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29176131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soraskeyblade/pseuds/soraskeyblade
Relationships: Mori Calliope/Takanashi Kiara
Comments: 17
Kudos: 162





	1. Prologue

Hundreds of years ago, multiple dimensions away from our own, lies a mountainous region. Between two mountains lied the dividing line of two colliding climates, on one mountain was something you would expect to see at the peak, with snow covering the rocks and looking fairly desolate, on the other, greenery covered it in its entirety. The sun was starting to move down the skyline and disappear behind the mountain, yet there were still a couple hours of daylight left. In between the two lies a valley that sloped downward between the two, ending in a beautiful lake, like a clear spring. It's at this lake that we see a beautiful woman, with hair a brilliant orange approaches. One could have mistaken her for being a normal human, if not for the two beautiful feathers hanging from behind her ears, a soft green that contrasted greatly from her orange hair. Dressed in a nondescript brown cloak that draped over her body, she shifted and rummaged for something underneath its generic tapestry. She silently cursed as she continued her search from pocket to pocket.

"I better not have forgotten or lost it or Ruvio is gonna let me have it" she muttered to herself. "Ah", a short exclamation escaped her lips as she found what she was searching for. From underneath her cloak she pulled out a small silver bell. It didn't seem anything entirely remarkable, aside from several myriad symbols etched around the entirety of the surface.

"Time to see if the information we bought from the guild was worth it" she stated calmly, and bent down close to the surface of the lake. She temporarily set the bell down on the ground, and started pulling out more objects from various places from underneath her cloak. Chief among them was a matching sword and shield, in a compact, easy to transport shape. They were both a variety of orange, green and blue, almost futuristic and seemed at odds with the rest of the natural landscape. In addition, she pulled out a small set of vials containing a variety of liquids inside. She popped the stopper on each one, and, though grimacing, brought each to her lips and drank the contents in one gulp. Her body briefly shone after each potion was consumed, having some mysterious unknown effect on her being. Satisfied that she was adequately prepared, she removed the cloak and set it on a nearby brush.

To match her riveting and eye-catching hair was orange body armor. Made of some unknown metal to us, it seemed to conform to her body, like how the scales of a dragon wraps around its owner's body. Unlike what many swordsman of the world might recommend, the armor seemed to scream "Here I am, come fight me!" So gaudy and extreme it was, one could only come to the conclusion that the wearer must be either a glory seeking blithering idiot, or suicidal. She picked up the shield and put her slim left arm through the straps. The shield began glowing from the center, as if reacting to the comfortable warmth of its master. The tip of her sword reacted in a similar manner when she picked it up in her right hand, eager to feel the flesh of her enemies. The woman picked up the bell for last, in her free left hand and brought it low to the surface of the water, and began to mutter an indecipherable language. If anyone were there to listen to her at that moment, they would surely have described it as some sort of angelic, flowy language that would have been a joy to listen to for hours on end. The bell responded to the commands given in the language, and began to faintly glow. After a minute of this scene, the bell then gave a clear, strong note that should not have been possible given its size.

A powerful ripple formed from the bell and stretched out across the surface of the lake. The woman stood up and hung the bell on the brush next to her cloak, taking a battle stance, shield out in front and sword to her side. For several minutes nothing happened, all that could be heard is the sound of the wind softly blowing, and the woman's breathing, soft and even. In...out...in...out...in...out. Ten minutes passed, then twenty, then half an hour. The woman did not budge an inch during this time period. Bugs were starting to rest on her body, considering her a part of nature. An hour had passed now, with no indication that anything had changed in the environment. Finally, the woman relented, relaxing her stance.

"Gods dammit Palla, this is what happens when you pick up tips from the Laughing Raven guild!" she swore aloud, turning around to pick up her cloak from the nearby brush. At that moment, the water close to the bank burst forth, a blue blur stretched out quickly towards the woman, who didn't even have time to react. The blur swiftly picked up the woman, and carried her into the air at speeds that a normal human would surely have been knocked out due to G force alone. It was a water dragon. Its head and neck were the only parts of its body above the water, the rest of it still obfuscated by the surface. Its head was slim, suited for swimming underneath the water, with spikes on the crown of its head like the whiskers of a cat. The woman found herself resting between the vicious creature's sets of teeth, yet was still visibly unharmed. The teeth that should have pierced her fair skin instead hung millimeters from its target, stopped by a glow covering her body.

"You sly, smart bastard, you really waited all that time!?" she yelled out, sounding more annoyed than anything at her current predicament. Thankfully, her sword hand was free, so she shifted her grip to point the sword downward and thrust into the lizard's skin. The dragon's scales looked particularly tough, but the glowing sword cut through it as easily as a knife through hot butter. The water dragon gave an unholy scream, and a jet of high pressure water burst from inside its mouth, jettisoning the woman further into the air. She fell back down to terra firma, spinning wildly from the force given to her by the dragon. Twisting her body midair similar to that of a cat, she landed somewhat gracefully on her feet, though she wasn't able to recover fully, and fell forward on her knees. Clearly frustrated, she slammed her shield down on the ground and blew a small but forceful breath of fire from her mouth, which carried her body up into a standing position.

She took a quick glance over her body and found the glow that had protected had faded quite quickly, its efficacy diminished beyond any useful capability. She could not take that kind of attack again. The water dragon regarded her briefly, perhaps surprised at the tenacity of its foe, before letting out a tremendous roar, and fired another jet of water at the woman, who stood her ground. The center of the shield shone brightly, and seemed to take in the jet effortlessly, leaving the woman quite unharmed. The jewel turned a brilliant blue, and the woman took this opportunity to dash forward towards the surface of the water. Surprisingly, instead of sinking below the surface, the woman's shoes made contact as if the water was nothing but another solid object to stand on, no doubt another effect of one of the myriad of potions she had drunk earlier. She ran forward toward the base of the neck of the creature hoping to finally inflict any sort of meaningful damage at last, but found her progress halted by another well-placed stream of water shot from the dragon.

"Don't you have any other tricks!?" She yelled at the dragon, though futile, as it could clearly give no form of intelligent answer. Since she could not get close, she was going to have to get unconventional. She shifted the grip on her sword once again, holding it like one would hold a spear. Taking aim, she threw the sword straight at the dragon's neck, with the force an Olympic athlete could only hope to match. At the same time, she pointed the shield behind her, and the blue jewel shone. The jewel suddenly sprayed out a jet of water just like how the water dragon had been pestering her with since the fight had begun, and this time was used as a propellant to speed the woman forward. The shield moved her around to the other side of the dragon, as the sword pierced the dragon's neck from the front, which let out a howl of pain. She continued moving around the dragon, eyes darting back and forth searching for something, until she found it; the tip of the sword exiting the dragon from the back of its neck. She rushed forward and grabbed the bloody hilt, and spun, driving the sword into its flesh. She continued on, moving quickly around the base of the neck, aiming to separate the head from its owner. She completed her circuit, spinning around with flourish as the head of the water dragon tilted and fell onto the beach with a satisfying crash. The woman crouched there for a minute, breathing heavily, taking a moment to collect her thoughts. Satisfied, she stood. She looked over at the unmoving head, squinting, to make sure that the beast was well and truly dead. Convinced that it was no longer going to up and attack her again, she began a light jog to the beachhead, after all there was no telling when the potion would wear off and she would have to swim back to the beach, and she wasn't sure if she could with the heavy sword and shield.

"Gotta say, I'm thankful for Ruvio for giving me those potions," She said to herself. "There's no telling what would have happened if I di-" She didn't have the opportunity to finish her sentence, for as she spoke two more dragon heads burst from the water, each grabbing one side of her body. It wasn't a water dragon. It was a water hydra. And both of the heads had one goal; rip her body in two. They were doing a really good job too, as she screamed out in pain, feeling her spine protest the two forces violently.

"Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii've jussssssssssssssssssst had about enough of thisssssssssssssssss!" she screamed out to the best of her ability. Her sword and shield both glowed like stars, and were absorbed into her body, and she too began to glow, but in magnificent flames. The sudden heat forced the two heads to drop her, and before their eyes she quickly transformed. Instead of her arms, two wings grew. Her feet turned into talons, her head grew slimmer and more aerodynamic. Her size doubled, tripled, quintupled, more and more until it was on par with the hydra heads. The woman was a phoenix, a creature so fantastical that it could only be called a myth by our standards. She let out a majestic screech, a way to intimidate the water hydra heads, but they were undeterred, only matching her with their own unholy screams.

She flew at the head of the one on the right, talons outstretched, aiming for the eyes to blind it. The left head protected it with a stream of water, hitting the phoenix from the side, throwing it off course and just grazing the side of the hydra's face. In retaliation, the hydra aimed and bit down on the leg of the phoenix. Though it could not bite for long due to the intense heat, it hit its mark and the phoenix screeched again, this time in pain. Recovering from the new wound, the phoenix flew high into the air, dodging subsequent jets of water in an attempt to drive her out of the sky. She flew back down, using the sinking sun as cover to dive-bomb the heads once again. This time she succeeded, her talons sinking deep into the face and eyes of the hydra head that shot the initial stream of water at her.

Unfortunately, the force of her weight and momentum caused her talons to sink in deeper than intended. She could not free herself from the wriggling hydra head, and the other head was already taking aim. Flapping her wings desperately, the phoenix tried to put the head between her and the oncoming onslaught, to no avail. She was blasted over and over with jet after jet of highly pressurized water, screaming each time it made contact. Her flames started to diminish, and the hydra, seeing its opportunity, bit deep into the wing. Howling in pain, the phoenix knew that if it did not do something quickly, this would be the end. The phoenix drew in its free wing, and started summoning the eternal flame deep within her core. The hydra head, sensing danger, released its grip on the wing and tried to shoot another stream of water at her, but it was too late. A huge explosion erupted from the phoenix, which torched both heads simultaneously, in an instant. The surrounding area bent to the phoenix, marveling at the raw power before it. Trees and grass burned, animals vaporized, the lake was evaporated in the blink of an eye. With the force and power of a nuke, the area was terraformed, scorched and forever changed. Naught was left but the phoenix, its flame now extinguished, crashing back down to the newly formed ground. Out of power, it transformed back into the woman, naked as the day she was born, the armor destroyed with the transformation. She was able to keep consciousness for but a moment, and then blacked out.

"Kusotori." A voice flatly said. The woman barely heard it at the edge of her consciousness.

"Hey, Kusotori." the voice repeated, again showing no real sense of urgency. The woman opened her eyes, and came upon a woman dressed in all black and pink hair carrying a scythe, sitting on a flaming rock, unperturbed by what surely must have been an unbearable heat. A reaper.

"Calli!" said the woman, smiling weakly. "When are you gonna tell me what that means?"

"Whenever you get to that dimension I suppose," said the woman named Calli, who took out a bottle of red wine and sipped it disinterested. There was a moment of silence as neither said anything, and Calli just drunk from her bottle.

"Hehe, I probably look like a mess right now don't I?" the woman said. "You didn't even give me a chance to get decent, you're not going to hold me down and do...naughty things to me are you?" she added coyly.

"Yeah, you know that's not why I'm here," Calli said flatly, getting up to walk over to the woman, and gently tilted her head up. "You kinda did a number on yourself there didn't you Kiara?" The women named Kiara saw that her body was covered in burns and scars from head to toe, so much so that it was unrecognizable as a body. At the edge of her vision, she could see the foot that had been bitten by the hydra had been twisted back 180 degrees as well.

"Oooh, that's gonna be my whole day isn't it?" she said, laughing at her own joke. She couldn't quite finish the laugh, and instead fell into a fit of coughing. "Oh it hurts to laugh."

"Hey Kiara" said Calli, hesitantly.

"Hm?" Kiara returned her statement with a glance and a head tilt in her direction.

"How long do you intend on continuing this...all this fighting and dying?" Calli finally managed to force out. Kiara giggled in response.

"As long as the world I'm born in needs me. If the world doesn't need me to be a fighter, I'd gladly try to find some other way to help!"

"Don't you want to take it easy every once in a while though, just grow up naturally, have a boring job, get a husband, a family-"

"Hey! You know that I'm the only one for you! Don't even joke about me getting a husband!" Kiara shouted, puffing out her cheeks in indignation.

"Alright, alright fine, no husband. But the rest of it still stands. Shouldn't you take it easy every once in a while? All this pain and suffering can't be good for you..."

"I told you, if the world doesn't need me to be a fighter, I'll find some other way to help it!"

"Alright, humor me, what would you do if you could?" Calli asked, curiosity in her eyes, betraying her stoic expression. This took Kiara by surprise. Calli wasn't normally the type of woman to dig this deep or ask that much about her. She pondered for a while. She thought of how her heart danced in pubs around the world, brought to life by singing minstrels telling tales through the land, burning the fire of adventure within her.

"Hmmm...I think I'd like to sing and dance for a wide audience...to give them joy!" Kiara finally came upon. "I want to inspire the world!" she finished with the most sincere smile in the world that surely could melt the heart of anyone witnessing it.

"I think I can do that..." Calli muttered under her breath.

"Hm?"

"Nothing," said Calli, quickly covering her tracks. She took another swig from her bottle and gently stroked her Kiara's hair, now singed at the ends.

"I think it's probably time," Calli said, finality entering her voice.

"Wait, Calli!" Kiara screamed all of a sudden, shocking the reaper from her usually calm disposition.

"Oh my god, what?" Calli screamed back.

"Are my feathers still there?"

"You mean the green ones behind your ears?"

"Yeah! They're proof of my status as a phoenix, if I don't have them when I die, then I lose my pride as a phoenix, I absolutely need them! Missing one means I've lost half of myself." Kiara said with unnatural panic in her voice. It clearly meant the world to her. Calli looked closely, turning Kiara's head back and forth, inspecting. She eventually smiled warmly.

"Don't worry Kiara, they're both still there," Calli reassured her. Kiara breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, I'm ready! Thrust your big scythe deep into me! Do me!" she said as innocently as she could, in futile attempt to raise her arms to embrace the reaper.

"Don't push it; you're making it weird again Kusotori..." sighed Calli, raising her scythe. It took a moment for the scythe hang in the air, and then the reaper performed her duty. Calli stood there for a while, regarding her handiwork. Tears slowly fell down her cheek, on to the one she's loved for as long as she can remember.

"This time...this time I'll make you happy...and achieve your dream!" she finally said, a smile of genuine warmth forming on her face, the tears still flowing.


	2. The Unexpected Surprise is the Best Surprise

Kiara opened her eyes, waking from the very realistic dream. Another night, another dream of one of her previous lives. It was actually rare for the dream to be so recent in memory. As so many do though, it ended in her death. Kiara never minded though, as each time she died she got to see Calli. Calli was a reaper after all, so the most of the time Kiara ever got to see her was when she was near her death. What should have been a point of dread became a sight for sore eyes, the one constant in Kiara’s lives.

Kiara blinked the sleep away as she grabbed for her phone on the stand next to her. The Pekora themed alarm clock was going off, and the display read 06:00. This miracle could only have been achieved through the sacrifice of an evening stream and seven different alarms spread in five minute intervals, as Kiara had special plans for today. Kiara sat up slowly and glanced around her room. It was still dark out, so for a human it would have been difficult to see for a normal human, but Kiara had a reduced version of night vision, so she could see well enough.

She lived in a more Western style home, the person who rented it out probably wanted to attract foreigners like her as potential customers. Flowery, blue wallpaper decorated the Japanese-style thin walls, with a single window that showed the darkness outside, which faced the small backyard, that Kiara hadn’t gone out in since she moved in. The floor had a cheap carpet that served its purpose and nothing more. Off to the right of the bed in the corner of her room was her streaming setup, a bizarre mess of cables, monitors and plugs. It was probably a fire hazard, and one spark could probably set the whole old house ablaze in seconds, but Kiara was no stranger to fire, she assumed that it would be fine. The bed she slept in was similarly cheap, though the yellow sheets and bed spread was hers.

The laptop that she used to watch an anime (she was between shows on Netflix) before going to bed was still next to her aglow with the last episode she watched on it. Kiara looked down at her feet, thinking about the day ahead of her when she saw at the foot of the bed…a mouse. It was so sudden and unexpected that Kiara’s scream died in her throat. Then Kiara mentally grabbed that scream and pulled it back out.

“JASPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!” she yelled, a scream a mixture of fear and anger. The mouse, seeing the jig was up, scampered off the bed and rushed to a newly made hole next to Kiara’s dresser. Kiara threw off the covers and bent down to look in the hole.

“Jasper, you little shit, come back here!” she demanded, eye straining to look further.

“Oh what, so you can torch my furry behind? Fat chance of that toots,” came the voice of Jasper, with the stereotypical accent of an Italian New York mobster, “if you think a single whisker of mine is going behind-a that wall you gotta nother think coming!”

“Then why the hell did you even come out in the first place?”

“Even a mouse, hey, he wants to get a look of a beautiful naked women every once in a while!” Jasper shot back without an ounce of remorse. Kiara looked down in horror, realized her predicament and whipped around, grabbing the blanket off the bed and covered herself.

“I swear, when Casper gets back you are gonna suffer, and I can’t wait to see it go down!” she yelled at the hole, venom dripping from her tone.

“Awwww, does the small scared phoenix need a mouse to back her up?” the mouse shot back, sarcasm evident. This was it, the last straw. Something snapped in Kiara, and she was going to get her revenge. Her papa may have sealed her powers away to turn in a phoenix, but she still had a couple tricks up her sleeve. She breathed in, drawing in her flaming core, and exhaled into the hole. She continued, over and over, exhaling breaths that would register over 100 degrees Celsius.

“Ay, what are you doing you crazy-ow,ow, owowowowowow,” said Jasper, currently cooking alive in the close confines of the wall. “Fine, fine, uncle, uncle! I give up you crazy broad! Geesh, you’d think that…and for…nks…” The voice faded away, Jasper cursing his luck that Kiara had woken up so early. Satisfied, Kiara stood up, and keeping one eye on the hole, took out some green pajamas to at least be decent while she got her preparations underway. Whoever wished to be able to speak to animals clearly didn’t think of the consequences.

She headed downstairs to begin, which thankfully, wouldn’t take that long. She took out a mini, transportable cooler that she had bought a couple days prior, and started putting in the essential ingredients that she would be using later. Cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg, some eggs put into a small plastic container, butter and milk were added to the small cooler. Bread would be bought en route in a convenience store for freshness. Kiara knew from some casually dropped questions that Calli had pots to put the ingredients in and a skillet to cook the food on. Kiara had decided that now was the time to pay back Calli for all the help she’d be given thus far, and the only way she knew how was to make a delicious French toast breakfast for her! 

The past few months had been extremely stressful for Kiara, with mic issues, game capture issues, internet issues, so on and so forth. All of her friends had helped in some way or another, but she wanted to find some way to show her thanks especially for Calli, who without her emotional support especially Kiara probably would not have survived the first month. It was mid-December now, so this was coming late, but better late than never.

Having the food gathered up, Kiara rushed back upstairs to take a quick bath (she drew the warm water before going down) and to dress properly for the day. Getting out of the bath, she stood in front of her dresser and closet looking for the proper outfit. Usually choosy, Kiara had somewhat decided the previous night what to wear, and just needed to add the finishing touches. She put on black stockings that would be accompanied with black 1-inch heels, a red skirt that hugged her figure and went down to just above her knees, and a black turtleneck sweater that also curved around her figure. For the finishing touches, she decided on a small, cute wristwatch and a tan coat. Naturally, Kiara might not be on the clock, but she couldn’t go out with some sort of hat, and a red beret would do the trick nicely. Posing in the mirror, she changed positions to make sure everything looked nice, and confirming that it was, went downstairs two at a time and picked up the cooler to make her way over.

Calli was two towns and a blood sacrifice away from where Kiara lived, so it would take her about half an hour by train to get there. It was 07:00 right now, so she would have to hurry a bit if she would want to get there before Calli wakes up to surprise her.

Kiara stepped out onto the street, the morning daylight starting to peek out above the horizon. Apologizing briefly to the neighbor taking out their burnable trash for the loud disturbances earlier, she started to make her way to the train station. She wanted to be able to make the next train, so she broke into a light jog. She did this for about five to seven minutes before starting to get tired.

“I know this world’s relatively peaceful and all, but the shape my body is in in this world is really sad…” Kiara pondered to herself. She flashed her pass and went through the gates to get to the train, which was leaving in 30 seconds. Quickly sliding into the train car before the doors closed, Kiara got to experience the wonders of the early morning traffic. She had definitely seen more packed trains before, but with the cooler she took up more space than usual and was overly conscious about making sure she didn’t hit anyone with it. Nothing particularly eventful happened on the train, a fact that Kiara loved about Japan, most people kept to themselves.

20 minutes later, Kiara was freed from the confines of the train car, and made her way to a nearby convenience store, quickly buying a loaf of bread. Looking back and forth, she quickly ducked in an alleyway behind the store to make her way over to Calli. Checking to make sure no one was looking, she grabbed a nail file out of her purse, as the end was pointy and would do the trick. 

Kiara pricked her finger, drawing a small amount of blood from out of it, and turned her hand upside down so that a droplet would land on the ground.

Leaning down closely she whispered, “Deadbeats lurking now, Deadbeats lurking now, Deadbeats lurking now, Deadbeats lock it down!” The little droplet of blood grew in size by a massive amount, enough for a person to stand on. In it, a tiny reaper head poked out, looked at her and retreated back inside. Kiara stood on the circle and quickly sank down, leaving nothing behind. On the other side, she found herself in a grand hall not unlike what you see at Grand Central Station in New York. Kiara waved to the Deadbeat manning the desk from where she spawned from, which waved its skeletal hand back, and then made her way out. Demons and monsters of all kinds were loitering about, but neither Kiara nor the demons paid each other no mind. Once in the Underworld, it was just a quick five minute jog to Calli’s new apartment complex. It was 07:40, a little later than she was initially planning, but she was sure it would be fine.

Taking the Hellevator (just a normal elevator, but the demons got cheeky with the naming scheme) up to the 4th floor. She walked halfway down the hall to Calli’s apartment, and started digging around in her purse. There she found it, Calli’s apartment key, which Calli had lost a while back. Technically she had not been lying when she said that she didn’t take it, Calli handed it to her and Kiara put it in her purse, to whit her bird brain immediately forgot about it until she found it a week later. At that point, it was much too late to laugh it off as a joke, but now it was a boon in disguise.

She inserted the key, and turned, carefully opening the door to take a peek inside. Calli’s new apartment was indeed bigger than her previous apartment, but it was still fairly small. Primarily pink all over on the walls, ceiling, and floor; you would not have thought that the apartment belonged to an apprentice of death itself. The hallway split into two directions, to the left, the dining room and kitchen were placed, to the right, the shower, bedroom, and an extra room Calli had no idea what to do with. It was completely dark in the hallway, so Kiara turned on the light, carefully looking around to make sure that Calli wasn’t somewhere she couldn’t see. Tiptoeing carefully, she went to the bedroom and peeked in, and saw Calli sleeping peacefully in her bed still. Kiara purposely picked this Tuesday morning, when neither Calli nor her had a stream to do that morning, so it was no surprise to her that Calli was still sleeping. She carefully closed the door, and made her way over to the kitchen.

Unpacking the cooler, she got to work. She grabbed an apron from in her purse, a last minute purchase along with the bread, feeling that it would give her the housewife feeling. She grabbed the cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar, measured out each of the ingredients, and put them in a small bowl. She started searching for the skillet, trying to be as quiet as she could. She found it underneath a couple pots and pans, still completely new by the looks of it. She started getting out the eggs, milk and butter, and realized that she forgot an ingredient; the vanilla extract. It wasn’t a particularly vital ingredient, but food only came together when you followed the proper steps, so she started to panic. Desperately, she looked in one of Calli’s top cupboards, and miracle upon miracles she found some. Maybe Calli got some when she felt like trying to wean off Uber Eats, but was unsuccessful. Back on track, she heated the stovetop (thankfully not a gas stove, she was worried about what she’d do if that was the case) and started to melt butter in the skillet. Finally, she got a larger bowl and mixed the milk, eggs, vanilla together, adding the cinnamon mixture last.

Now for the moment of truth, the stage had been set. Glancing back in the direction of Calli’s bedroom, door still closed, she knew this was the trickiest part. She took the bread, dipped it in the mixture, and swiftly and expertly put the bread on the skillet. It exploded in a cacophony of satisfying crackles and pops, as if a mini fireworks celebration for the scythe now around Kiara’s midriff.

Kiara turned around with a beaming smile “Good Morning Calli!”

“KU-SO-TO-RIIIIIII!” came the energetic reply, Calli clearly appreciating the full splendor of an uninvited house guest. Her hair disheveled, her pink pajamas slipping off one of her shoulders and no makeup coupled with the most terrifying, most cruel, most murderous glare to ever grace the art of facial expressions combined with the large scythe wielded with ease in one hand revealed the reaper’s apprentice that has taken billions upon billions of souls for eternity. It was the loveliest sight that Kiara had ever seen.

“Do you want a breakfast first? Or perhaps you’d wa-“ she began to say before being flicked in the forehead. “Owwwwwwwww…”

“Don’t even Kusotori, I am not in the mood for this. I just nearly killed you there, maybe you could react a little?” sighed Calli, lowering the scythe and walking away. “And what’s with the dumb line anyway, did you watch some trashy harem anime because there wasn’t anything on Netflix?” It was scary how well she knew Kiara. She placed the scythe down on the ground, and a portal opened up, with the hands of the Deadbeats taking it away for safekeeping.

Kiara, still rubbing her forehead, deciding to ignore the anime comment, said “Oww, but Calli, I just wanted to surprise you!”

“Oh I’m surprised all right, surprised how you thought sneaking into my apartment without telling me was a good idea!”

“If I’d just ask you normally, you’d probably say no, and you are always just getting Uber Eats, especially recently, so drastic measures needed to be taken!” she insisted. “Besides aren’t you hungry right now?”

Calli looked away and said defiantly “No! I was up late last night and-“ Calli’s stomach decided now was the time to let out a triumphant roar. Calli, mouth still agape from being interrupted mid-sentence, meekly sat down at the dining table.

“Yes…” she said, admitting defeat. Kiara, astonished at having won seemingly by default (the only way she knew how) continued to make the French toast. There was a couple moments of silence between two, the only sound being made was the sound of cooking happening.

“Maybe you would have been right Kiara,” said Calli finally.

“Hm?”

“Look, if you promise to not pull a stunt like this again, I’ll promise to be a little less abrasive and invite you over more, deal?”

“Ohhhh, Calli, you do have a dere side!” Kiara squealed, hugging Calli from behind. Calli waited a second before pushing her away.

“Don’t get it twisted, I know you’ll just do something like this anyway, so might as well schedule it so it isn’t a surprise…” Calli trailed off, looking away. Kiara placed the first plate of French toast in front of Calli, and kissed her on top of the head, earning a swipe in her direction that she avoided with ease. Kiara set another plate out for herself, opposite Calli. She took out a bottle of syrup for Calli, and a jar of Nutella for herself.

“That too huh?” remarked Calli, taking the first bite. Her eyes widened at the explosion of taste.

“Oh wow…I forgot how much I missed this…” she said wistfully. All Kiara could do was smile back as she watched Calli enjoy the food she made.

“I wanted to do this for you because of all the help you’ve given me. You’ve been there for me through all of my previous lives; you helped me get started with Hololive, you inspire me with how hard working and talented you are. I don’t really get much of an opportunity to help you out, and this is one of the few ways I can.” Kiara said, letting a lot off her chest. Calli looked down at her food, then back to Kiara.

“You help me more than you know…” Calli said quietly.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Do you think you could make some more? You might annoy the shit out of me on a constant basis Kusotori, but I can’t even lie here, these are really good. Reminds me of this restaurant I really enjoyed back in the old Underworld neighborhood”

“Oh? It’s nothing really all that special, you could probably do it yourself just by watching how I do it, it’s pretty much just adding the ingredients together and then cooking the right amount of time.” Kiara got an idea.

“Actually, why don’t you try? After all, if you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat forever. Time to get you off that Uber Eats. I’ll make yours and you make mine.” She said, getting up to get more bread.

“All right…” said Calli uncertainly. Kiara showed Calli in precise, easy instructions, from dipping both sides of the bread in the mixture, to putting it on the skillet, and then waiting the right time to flip the bread.

“All right, now you try!” Kiara gestured. Calli had no trouble with the mixture and putting the bread in the skillet, but once it was in she clearly started to panic.

“I don’t know what to do, what if I mess up the flip?” she said in a hurried tone.

“We’ll do it together then! Just remember, the key is speed!” Kiara said, taking Calli’s hand that was holding the spatula.

“Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing…”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” They waited 30 seconds and together they shoveled and flipped the bread. It didn’t land perfect, up against the edge of the skillet, but a quick correction and their mission succeeded. They sat back down, Kiara’s toast in front of Calli and vice versa.

“Let me know if it doesn’t taste good and we can switch,” said Calli, eyeing the imperfect toast. Kiara took the Nutella spread and took a bite.

“It’s…the best food I’ve ever had,” she finally said, a slight tear forming in her eye.


	3. The Homiemoon Paradise

Kiara was on a cold, dark mountain by herself, battling the elements. Clutching her stomach in clear pain, it was all she could do to keep going. The intense blizzard showed no signs of letting up on the phoenix, oblivious to her current predicament. She had been entirely too careless, to such a degree that it was embarrassing. Taking such a large amount of damage from dire wolves…could she continue calling herself a part-time warrior and phoenix after such a blunder? The pack had been very intelligent and sly; they were on her before she could even blink, all of them hidden in the darkness and snow. She decided to push such thoughts away for now, and keep moving. She looked back and saw the snow dyed red with a long trail of her own blood. She was pretty sure she had lost most of her intestines a while back. She could not see the dire wolves’ bodies anymore; the blizzard obfuscated her vision in all directions. Looking back she took another step, and suddenly the white snow rose up to meet her.

_Strange,_ Kiara thought. _I don’t know why, but I figured the snow would be a lot colder…_ Kiara had seemed to have lost all feeling in her body. It was at this point that she realized that her limbs no longer functioned. She could not unleash her latent phoenix powers anymore. Had she not had this fight on this cold, dark mountain, she supposed that her natural healing could have patched her up and regrown all the necessary blood and organs. But she got cocky, and this was the result.

_No. No. No. No. No. No. No._ Kiara thought, gritting her teeth. _No, this is NOT how I die. Cold and alone on a mountain by wild animals? What kind of hero’s death is this? Certainly not mine! Move. Move. Move. Move. Move. MOVE. MOVE. MOVE! MOVE! MOVE YOUR FUCKING BODY KIARA!_ Her motivational speech to herself seemed to have some sort of effect, as she was able to raise her head out of the snow, even if just a little. And then she saw it. The reaper.

“Kiara, wake up its time for breakfast!” came the casual call. Kiara opened her eyes, and woke with a jolt. At the foot of her bed stood Calli, in a bath robe having just come out of the shower. She was still drying her hair with a towel.

“Come on, get out of bed, take a shower, or we’re not gonna make the breakfast time!” Calli repeated, going over to the dryer and iron to deal with her hair. Kiara was still a little shell shocked from the dream (or was it nightmare?) that she had just had.

_Was that…the first time I died?_ Kiara wondered. _The first time I…ever met Calli?_ Kiara was used to these dreams that she had, they came to her often. But this dream seemed special in some way, and Kiara was thoroughly spooked.

“Kiara?” asked Calli, with the dryer in one hand, the phone to call the front desk in the other and puzzled expression on her face. Not wanting to trouble her friend, Kiara got out of the bed with a jump.

“Sorry Calli, sorry! You know me, I’m not much of an early bird!” she hastily said, recovering quickly. Calli just raised an eyebrow at the poor attempt at a joke.

“Alright, then get in the shower, that should get you wide awake. And DON’T ask me to join you. Even if I hadn’t already taken one, I’d still say no.” She warned, sternness increasing with each word in the sentence. Kiara shuffled into the shower, not really in the right mind set to make a silly retort. Getting out of her pajamas and stepping into the shower, Kiara merely stood under the hot water for a while, pondering the dream she just had. Being a mythical creature, Kiara was more attuned to the forces of nature and destiny than others, and she couldn’t quite shake that this was some sort of sign. Kiara and Calli had just woken up on the second day of their long awaited “Homiemoon” in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Both girls had been working themselves to the bone and this was sorely needed, especially for Calli, who if she had not been Death’s apprentice would surely have keeled over from overwork by now. Kiara wanted everything to go perfectly and now she was feeling nervous. The cardboard disease on yesterday’s streams for both Calli and her did not help to dissuade those fears.

“Kiara, are you almost done? I know you’re used to gravy for your showers, but you know the hotel isn’t gonna allow that.” Calli’s muffled voice floated through the door. Kiara snapped out of her trance.

“Yeah, just give me a second!” she yelled back, rushing through her shower ritual.

She had lived enough lives to know that if she thought hard enough about something bad happening, it would. A self-fulfilling prophecy. Shaking it off, she left the shower and got ready with Calli. They helped with drying each other’s hair, putting makeup on in the mirror, and getting dressed together. Each step did wonders for putting her mind at ease. By the time Kiara and Calli gotten to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, it had mostly left her mind. Doubly so, once the combined power of the fantastic Sapporo view and food had presented itself to her. Eating a variety of fruits (like pineapple of course), noodles and even an omelets prepared by a personal chef, it was just the beginning of the lap of luxury the two would find themselves in.

The view was similarly spectacular, with the view of the hotel overlooking the vast majority of Sapporo. The hotel in which they stayed in was easily one of the tallest in the city, and as such offered an unfiltered view. Kiara tore her gaze away from the breathtaking view to look over at Calli. She was currently finishing up her own set of fruits and was just about to dig into the soup curry that she had ordered, a Sapporo delicacy that Calli was over the moon about. Just before she was about to eat, she noticed Kiara staring.

“What is it Kusotori? Do I have food on my face?” she asked.

“Calli ich kann mich in deinen Augen verlieren” was all Kiara responded with, resting her elbows on the table and putting her chin on her hands, flashing Calli with a warm smile. Calli frowned.

“C’mon Kiara, you know I can’t speak German, for all I know you just insulted my family or something.”

“I’d never do that!”

“Hmmmph!” Calli’s signature grunt was all she could reply with. Remembering the soup curry sitting in front of her, Calli quickly forgot and continued eating. _Calli, I can get lost in your eyes._ She meant every single word of it. Having finished eating, she just sat in blissful silence looking out the window, while sneaking quick glances at Calli being engrossed in her food.

Once finished, they decided to see the sights of the city. They were staying in the JR Tower Hotel, located in the Chou Ward, which was close to a variety of interesting locations to visit. First they took a train to visit Sapporo Odori Park, which was admittedly a somewhat dull affair. Since it was nearly two months after Christmas had long since ended and it was still winter, most of the main attractions of the park had already been taken down. What was left was a park that was covered in snow, a beautiful sight to be sure, but not really anything that made it any more special than the rest of the city.

Once done with that, Calli recommended that they go to Ramen Alley since it was getting close to the middle of the day, and they could use the route to shop on the way there. It was not that far from the park, essentially a five minute long walk, so they took their time. On the way, Kiara pointed them into a sweets shop to browse for anything special. They found a variety of caramels, truffles and toffee, and Kiara was particularly excited to find some Kinder chocolate that reminded her of home. Getting a little bit of everything, they continued on their way to Ramen Alley, satisfied with the weight of their purchases.

Calli led the both of them into a shop that she had visited when she last visited Sapporo two years ago, uncharacteristically excited. Stepping in and taking a seat, Kiara had an up close and personal view of an absolute ramen massacre. Calli devoured three different types of ramen in ten minutes. Considering her figure, Kiara took a mental note that salt goes directly to the boobs. She could only watch in awe as she nursed her miso ramen with corn, the carnage vicious and brutal.

Once Calli was done murdering the shop’s noodle population, they finally decided to go to the main event for today; skiing. They walked back to the station and took the station over to the mountainous region where the majority of the ski resorts were located. They decided on Sapporo Teine, due to its close proximity to the city and it being a relatively new resort.

Both Kiara and Calli were nervous, but excited. Neither had gone skiing in a long time, but they knew that they would have a fun time so long as they took it easy. They entered the ski center to get rental equipment and passes for the lifts. The receptionist for the passes attempted to try to talk to them in English, but Kiara assured her that wasn’t necessary, and continued the conversation in Japanese. She always felt a little guilty about doing it in front of Calli, but she did love to flaunt her language skills when she had the chance. Once they had their passes, they got their rental skis and ski suits. Calli also decided to get a helmet as well, since it had been a while since she had last gone skiing. It was the same for Kiara, but she decided to opt out for no reason other than she was confident she wouldn’t need it (and again, to look cool in front of Calli). Slipping on the suits over their clothes, and finishing it off with gloves, they were ready to hit the slopes.

Before anything else, they wanted to get used to having the skis on before actually attempting to go down the hills. They found a quick cross country trail to practice on. Both girls got used to it pretty quick, even attempting to race each other in the last quarter of the trail. Since Kiara was the more daring of the two, she overtook Calli pretty easily on the small downslopes of the trail and won handily.

“All right, I know it’s pretty rich of me to ask you of all people, but I take it you’re warmed up?” asked Calli.

“Sure, but let’s take it easy, let’s do the beginner’s slope”

“No arguments here.”

They made their way over to the ski lifts. Similar to the way it works at the train stations, all Kiara and Calli had to do was take their passes located in pockets on their arms and swipe them across a pad to gain access to the lifts. Eyeing the speed of the lifts, Calli shifted around with visible nervousness.

“Ooooh, Calli, do you want to hold my hand when we get on?” teased Kiara, holding it out. To her unimaginable shock, Calli grabbed onto it almost immediately without a word. Deciding she must be legitimately nervous, Kiara decided to not tease her further. Waiting in line for brief amount of time, they slid forward on their skis, monitored closely by the staff to make sure they got on properly. They easily slid onto the bench and began the slow ascent to the top.

Calli hadn’t let go of Kiara’s hand since they got on the lift, and Kiara couldn’t pass up the golden opportunity. She slipped her hand out of the strap of one of her skis and pulled out her phone, intending to take a quick selfie. Unfortunately for her, as she was taking out the phone her arm bumped the ski pole, which tumbled off her lap onto the mountain below.

“Watch out!” Kiara yelled, praying it wasn’t going to hurt anyone. Calli, meanwhile was laughing her ass off.

“Calli this is serious!” she yelled at her lift partner, horrified that she could laugh at this point in time.

“Relax Kiara, remember, I’m Death-Sensei’s apprentice!” Calli said in between deep breathes from laughing so hard. “I can sense people’s incoming death, and no one is even close to dying here today!”

At least comforted by that thought, Kiara now had the room to be embarrassed about dropping her ski pole. In revenge, she continued her selfie and took the picture of them still holding hands, flashing V for victory.

“I’m putting this up on the Twitter! Jenma and Ina are gonna love this!” she pouted, quickly taking off both gloves to upload the picture.

“Oy, Kusotori don’t you dare! Your employees aren’t supposed to know where we are yet!” Calli tried to grab the phone out of Kiara’s hands, but Kiara pulled away. The lift started shaking violently, so they both decided to knock it off and wait until they got to the top.

Once there, Kiara had to talk to the staff at the top to retrieve her lost ski pole. The both of them waited patiently at the top of the beginner’s slope, settling with people watching, seeing everyone from families with young ones, to couples trying out skiing together for the first time, to old people looking for fun. After a while, Kiara started to feel a little self-conscious.

“Calli, you don’t have to wait for me you know, you can start down the slope, and I’ll catch up! She said.

“You sure Kiara?” Calli asked back, uncertain.

“Yeah, we’ve already waited a while, I’m sure it won’t be long before someone brings it to me, and I can catch up then.” Kiara said firmly. After some more prompting from Kiara, Calli awkwardly started making her way down. She watched Calli awkwardly move left and right to keep herself from moving too fast, trying (and failing) to not look at Calli’s butt as it swayed back and forth.

When the staff finally came with a replacement for her ski pole, Calli was just a dot in the horizon. Feeling the competitive spirit from the cross country race earlier, Kiara quickly got started. She crouched low and bent forward, picking up speed quickly, passing the nearby families and beginners quickly. There weren’t any trees, but plenty of people, so Kiara alternated between keeping her toes pointed forward and in to regulate her speed and make sure she wasn’t going to hit any of the other skiers. Looking out in the distance Kiara could see that Calli was just about to reach the bottom of the hill, with just the final stretch in front of her.

Emboldened and cocksure, bent low and tucked the ski poles underneath her armpits, like she’d seen the pros do on TV. Faster, faster and faster, she quickly caught up to Calli.

“Hey Calli! Eat my snow!” she yelled at her friend, passing quickly by. Calli stumbled a bit, startled by Kiara’s sudden appearance. Looking slightly annoyed after she recovered, she watched Kiara speed down towards the bottom of the slope. Likewise, Kiara was looking back to see Calli’s reaction, sticking her tongue out at her. She saw that Calli was shouting something at her, gesturing her to look forward. Puzzled, Kiara looked forward.

“Oh shi-“ was all she could say before she collided right into the plastic fence that was supposed to keep people on the slope. The final stretch of the slope was indeed straight, but it was also slanted to the right. While Kiara was messing around, since she wasn’t paying attention, the slant led her directly towards the fence, and at the speed she was going, she had absolutely no time to react. The fence, being just plastic gave way pretty easily. Everything, the skis, her gloves, the poles, all flew away from her in different directions, like she was a burst open piñata. Kiara rolled down the hill further and came to rest close to a tree, and blacked out temporarily.

Meanwhile, Calli could only watch in horror as she saw Kiara disappear over the crest of the hill. She quickly started making her way over, and then saw something that later allowed her to confirm that she did indeed have a burning heart, for it went chill at the sight of steam rising up from behind the hill. She was going too slow and she could see a large number of staff members making their way over to Kiara to make sure she was ok.

“Kiara, are you OK?” she called out, finally coming to the spot where Kiara crashed through the fence. There she saw her worst fears realized. The seal on Kiara’s belt had fallen off. Kiara’s body, sensing itself in danger, reacted violently to the trauma it received and used her latent phoenix powers. Kiara lay in the middle of what looked like a meteor crash landing site. Where the snow should have been was completely melted, revealing the wilting grass underneath that was currently burning. Bewildered employees of the ski resort were torn between running for their lives away from the burning wreck, or saving the woman lying in the middle of it all. The tree Kiara was lying next to was tilting towards her, about to fall over from the shock of the power it had witnessed.

“Oh no you don’t! Deadbeats!” Calli commanded. The snow next to her opened up with a portal, and a skeletal hand with her scythe popped out, handing it to her. Calli quickly kicked off the skis and slid down the slope, hoping she wasn’t too late. She took a great leap, and her scythe began to glow a cool blue. Landing with unnatural grace, she spun the scythe in a circle. A wave of energy erupted out of the scythe and expanded in all directions. The wave passed through all the bystanders and staff, and they collapsed onto the ground. At the same time, the wave blew the tree threatening Kiara’s life forcefully in the opposite direction.

Calli stood and looked around, making sure she had completed her task to the fullest. To reap means to harvest, or in another word, to take. Being Death-Sensei’s apprentice, she had long ago learned the ability to reap specific parts from her victims, including their memory. They would wake up in a couple minutes, unharmed, but will have forgotten the entire incident.

“I got this ok?” Calli called to the air. “I know I shouldn’t have done that, I’ll accept my punishment later.”

Letting the Deadbeats take her scythe back into the underworld, she picked up Kiara’s seal and she rushed over to Kiara’s side.

“Kiara! Kiara! Are you OK? Please wake up!” Calli’s ability to sense life did not to assuage her fears that Kiara had somehow left this world. She picked up Kiara and carried her princess-style, starting to walk over to the first aid station.

“Calli…” came the weak voice.

“Kiara! I’m here Kiara, what is it?” Calli hurriedly said, bringing her ear close to listen.

“My arm hurts…” Kiara mewled, blinking tears from her eyes. Calli breathed a sigh of relief.

“Close your eyes Kusotori, I’ll take it from here,” Calli said quietly. Kiara wordlessly obeyed. Calli started to bite her lip, pondering deeply.

 _This is a conversation that’s gotta happen sooner rather than later,_ she thought to herself.


	4. Torrent of Emotions

Kiara was transfixed on the image before her. Death, in the form of a reaper, standing right in front of her. She didn’t think this image would have presented itself to her this early in her life. She desperately wanted to get away, by any means necessary, but her limbs had given out completely. She couldn’t even feel the cold anymore, all she could do was watch. The personification of death approached, clearly a foreign entity. Her steps did not sink into the snow; the gusting winds disturbed neither her hair nor her dress. It took but a moment for the reaper to reach Kiara.

Not wanting to die face down in the freezing snow like an animal, Kiara summoned everything she could, managing to at the least turn over onto her back to face her impending doom. She looked Death directly in the eyes, from which she saw a cold emptiness in her pink irises. The entity did not seem to recognize Kiara as a being with thoughts, hopes and emotions, and merely as another checkmark off her to-do list. Death took the scythe in both hands, and raised it above her head. Kiara, accepting her fate, closed her eyes, waiting for the cold steel of the scythe. She waited…and waited…and waited…

“…?” Kiara gave an audible noise of confusion. Where was the cold steel? And then she felt something different. A sudden surprising sensation of warmth on her lips. Kiara opened her eyes in shock. For reasons unknown to her, the reaper decided on eschewing the violent approach to death.

 _The Kiss of Death_ thought Kiara somewhere in the back of her mind. But that voice was tiny and insignificant compared to the whirling torrent that encapsulated the rest of her mind. _Why did she do that? Where did the scythe go? Am I not going to die?_

All these questions and more entered her mind, but what finally escaped through her lips was “How can someone so cold feel so warm?”

”…!” the Reaper vocalized an odd noise of surprise, a spark of life appearing in the lifeless eyes. Kiara could feel herself getting lost in those eyes. She did not mind if that could happen forever. And then, everything went dark.

When Kiara opened her eyes again, she found herself back in her bed at the hotel in utter darkness. It was still the middle of the night; the sun had not yet come up. Kiara tried to rise out of bed, and winced in pain. Her arm still hurt from her skiing accident earlier in the day. After the accident, she spent some time getting looked at by the physicians at the medical cottage, and found outside of some bumps and bruises, she would be fine. Even if she had broken a bone, she would have recovered relatively quickly, though the cold does hamper with her healing factor.

It was the last activity of the day anyway, so Kiara and Calli decided to take the train back to the city for the stream planned later that day. On the way, they got soup curry from a place Calli recommended and took it back to the hotel. With Kiara being fine, they started the stream full of energy to make sure the KFP employees and Deadbeats didn’t worry. They would be moving to the countryside for an onsen resort, so they were going to have to make preparations to move, and went to bed earlier than the previous night.

Kiara looked over to the other bed at Calli, who had her back to her.

“mmpph…what..you gotta…rush…but…hmm..mmm…apple…” Calli was talking in her sleep again. Once again, the words didn’t really seem to make much sense to Kiara. She honestly felt jealous, Calli was probably having a really vivid, interesting dream.

Regardless, Kiara felt the need for an Idol Meeting, so she decided to get up again, putting less weight on the injured arm this time. Going into the bathroom, she reflected on the continuation of her previous dream. Having had the dream two nights in a row only served to stir Kiara’s feelings of superstitions and omens. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was going to happen, though now she wasn’t sure if it was good or bad. She had forgotten that Calli had actually kissed her first, regardless of the intentions of the kiss in the first place. This annoyed Kiara to no end, especially with Calli’s typical cool attitude towards her normally.

Having finished, Kiara left the bathroom to go back to bed. She took a quick look at Twitter on her phone from the bedside table, and was about to climb back into bed when she heard a noise of distress. Looking around for the source of the noise, Kiara was shocked to find the noise coming from Calli of all things. She was crying.

“Calli?” Kiara called softly. No reply came back, only instead light sobbing. Kiara moved around to the other side of the bed to get a better look at Calli’s face, and found that her eyes were still closed. She was crying in her sleep. Kiara was unsure about what to do. She hated waking people up, she knew that she hated being woken up, but at the same time Calli seemed to be in distress.

Deciding to take action, Kiara reached out her hand to lightly shake Calli’s shoulder when Calli moaned out, “Kiara…please don’t…I don’t want you to…”

Tone suggestive, Kiara reached her hand back in shock. Calli was dreaming about her? And what did she not want Kiara to do? Regardless, Calli seemed to stop crying afterwards, so she decided to leave her alone and climb back into bed, confused and conflicted.

The next day, Calli got up to go to breakfast.

“Kusotori, wake up. I wanna go explore Sapporo one more time before we go!”

“mmmmm” was all Kiara could reply with, burying her head further into her pillow. She was not feeling up to it after the accident, and with her head filled with thoughts of what she dreamed of and what she saw, Kiara wasn’t sure if she could properly face Calli right now. She gestured to Calli to go without her, hoping Calli wouldn’t notice her red blushing face.

“…Alright, but I won’t be gone long, maybe an hour and a half, make sure you get your stuff together so we can get going OK?” Kiara just kept her head buried until she heard the door close. She turned on her back and stared at the ceiling, this action reminding her of her dream last night. She brought her hand to her lips and touched them, as if she could still feel the pressure of Calli’s lips on her own, all those lives ago.

Deciding to be responsible, she got up out of bed to get ready and get her things together, starting with a shower. It took her half an hour to take a shower, and another half hour to pick the right clothes and fix her hair and makeup. When she was done packing, there was still around 15 more minutes until Calli said she would come back. She distracted herself with Twitter and whatever she could find on the TV that wasn’t a food show.

Right on time, Calli came back from her trip around Sapporo.

“Impressive, you actually got up,” she remarked, looking back and forth across the room. Kiara frowned at that.

“You know I CAN get up on time, right?”

“Yeah, when you want to, just joking Kusotori,” she replied coolly, gathering up her already gathered things. “Come on, let’s go there’s another ramen shop I want to hit before we go to the resort.”

Kiara quickly grabbed her things and rushed to catch up with Calli. They only had a few bags each, so it was easy enough to carry it all around from the checkout to the Sapporo streets. As they made their way to the ramen shop, Kiara kept stealing glances over to Calli. Nothing about her seemed different, at least on the surface. Call was looking ahead, taking the occasional glance at a nearby shop with interest every so often. Nothing to indicate that there was any sort of inner turmoil.  
Reaching the shop, they left their luggage at the front, and took seats at the table. Now strengthened with knowledge of the eating war crime that was about to take place beforehand, Kiara steeled her resolve. The same could not be said of the poor waiter, who could only gape in shock as the pink haired woman mowed down the ramen placed in front of her.

Kiara nursed her Corn and Butter ramen, half eating, half watching Calli. She was still lost in her thoughts for the first two bowls of ramen. It was when Calli was starting her third bowl that she decided to speak up.

“Calli, were you having a sexy dream about me last night?” The response was as predicted. Blindsided with a question of that nature so up front and out-of-the-blue as that, Calli immediately started choking on the noodles that she was slurping at the time. Kiara handed her some water and Calli drank it down with fervor.

“Wh..what the hell…are you talking…about?” Calli finally managed to sputter out. “Where is this even coming from?”

“Well, you were talking in your sleep last night, and you mentioned my name!” she said sheepishly. “And you were moaning too!”

“Wh..I-uh..well, you see the thing is…w-what I’m trying to say…” Calli was extremely flustered. Kiara was definitely enjoying this view, since she never seemed to have one up on her.

“Hmmm?”

“Look, I don’t really think it’s your business what sort of dreams I’m having!”

“Oh come on, I’m just curious! I promise I won’t make fun of you! And if it wasn’t you aren’t going to offend me or anything, and we can laugh about the mistake later!”

“No” came the curt reply. Kiara could tell that Calli was starting to get seriously annoyed, but she wasn’t going to budge here, she was too curious.

“Oh come onnnn!”

“No.”

“Pleeeease?”

“No!”

“I won’t make fun of you I promise!”

“Why do you care this much!? My dreams are my dreams OK!? I’m on this trip with you, so of course some of my dreams are gonna be about you!” Calli was yelling now, and some of the nearby patrons were starting to take notice of the quarrel. Calli glanced around her and then at the clock on her phone.

“Look we don’t have time for this stupid conversation, the shuttle’s gonna be at the building we’re supposed to meet in 20 minutes, and we still need to take the train and taxi there!” Calli hastily said, slurping the rest of her two bowls as fast as she could. Kiara looked at her own watch to confirm that she wasn’t just trying to avoid the topic, saw that it was correct, and started eating as well, annoyed at the successful diversion.

They quickly paid for their food and left the ramen shop for station at a brisk pace. With less than a minute to spare they hopped onto the train and made their way over to the station closest to the meeting place. Kiara was still annoyed at this point, but she didn’t want to cause a scene, so she decided to remain silent for now. She’d wait until they were on the shuttle. Reaching the station they got off, and quickly flagged a taxi to take them the rest of the way. By the time they arrived they were five minutes late.

However, there was one problem. The shuttle wasn’t there. There was a mild blizzard occurring at the time, so Calli and Kiara decided to wait, as the shuttle was most likely just late coming down the mountain. They waited 5-10 more minutes, but still there was no sign of the shuttle. Both girls were really starting to get worried, and the weather was getting colder and colder. This didn’t bother Calli that much, but to the injured Kiara it was starting to pose a problem.

All of a sudden, Calli’s phone went off. Calli looked at the phone number and recognized the number of the ryokan they were going to be staying at. She decided to let Kiara handle the conversation, since it was her area of expertise. Calli watched as Kiara spoke carefully, explaining that they were waiting. Whatever answer Kiara received did not make her happy apparently, as she suddenly speaking rapid-fire Japanese, at a pace that Calli could no longer keep up with, but she understood that things were not going well.

Hanging up the phone, Kiara passed the phone back to Calli with a severe grimace on her face.

“There’s apparently another building in Sapporo exactly like this one, and we went to the wrong one…”

“You’re fucking kidding me!”

“I wish I was! They told us to get a fucking bus…” The taxi that they had ridden in was already long gone, so they were going to have to walk back to the station to get a bus that would take them up the mountain to their ryokan. The blizzard was only picking up speed as well, making it difficult to drag their luggage around. Left with no other option, they started the difficult trek back. They walked in silence for the first couple of minutes, silently fuming at their bad luck.

Kiara decided to plunge back in at this point. “Sooo…what was that dream about?” she asked hesitantly.

“Seriously? Right now? Here? When you’re on the verge of freezing to death”

“If you just told me, then I wouldn’t have to ask! Dreams are important you know, they’re like the window to your soul!”

 _Plus, I wouldn’t mind hearing about what sort of sexy dreams you’re having_ she thought to herself, knowing full well that if she voiced that out loud she would have gotten bopped on the head for sure. Calli, frustrated and irritated at the series of unfortunate events, relented, shoulders slumped.

“Fine…I kinda wanted to have a conversation about this anyway…”

“Woohoohoooo, Calli, you wanted to talk about US!” Kiara teased, elbowing Calli in the ribs. However, she stopped when she saw Calli stopped walking, with a face of deadly seriousness.

“Kusotori, listen,” Calli began. “When you had your skiing accident, the seal on your phoenix powers slipped off. Everything around you was on fire. We’re lucky that you crashed far away from everyone, who knows what would have happened if you crashed close to the skiing resort building or something.”

“Oh wow, I didn’t know. Thanks for taking care of me back then, by the way. But I don’t understand, nobody was hurt, so what’s the big deal?”

“Kiara, we’re hiding in plain sight right now. But we’re still hiding, we can’t be advertising ours existences right now, ESPECIALLY you. You’ve been a phoenix for countless lives over many dimensions, but this time I’m asking you, PLEASE be a human. Otherwise all my work will be for no-“ Calli stopped herself, clearly saying something she wasn’t supposed to. This only served to pique Kiara’s curiosity.

“Your ‘work’?” she asked, suspicion in her voice. She wasn’t sure she liked where this was heading. Calli sighed, cat out of the bag.

“The reason I’m in Hololive is to keep an eye on you and make sure you stay out of trouble and keep your identity as a phoenix secret from the world.” Now Kiara was sure she didn’t like what she was hearing.

“So what, you’re my babysitter? What about Ina and Gura, are you keeping an eye on them too?”

“No, Ame and Enma are taking care of them. Even with her time travel powers, Ina’s Elder Gods alone are keeping Ame very preoccupied. They’ve actually destroyed the Earth a couple of times already. I’ve been assigned to just keep watch over you.”

“So what, is that the only reason that you decided to join me on this trip was because you were supposed to, is that it? It’s part of the job description?” Kiara said, starting to walk away.

“No, come on Kusotori, that’s not fair.” Calli objected.

“What is it then?” Calli started to speak up, and then closed her mouth, biting her lip.

“I can’t say.”

“What do you mean you can’t say? Can’t or won’t? It seems like you’re pretty good at keeping secrets from me. How many times have you lied to me throughout all my lives like this? Are you just taking advantage of me losing my memories every time I die?” Kiara was getting very heated now. Words were spilling out of her mouth faster than she could think about them, and they were coming out harsher than intended. Now it was Calli’s turn to get angry.

“What the hell, Kiara, we’ve known each other for so long, I’d never take advantage of you like that you should know that!”

“Oh, like how I ‘knew’ that you were coming along because you enjoyed my company? I should have known, you’ve always acted so cold to me! I thought it was just some tsundere act, but it turns out it was just some completely different act altogether!” Feeling thoroughly betrayed, she stomped off in the direction of the station to get on the bus.

“Come on, Kiara, stop!”

“…” Kiara decided to just keep quiet, lest more vitriol and venom leak from her mouth. She kept up the silent act all the way to the station, on the bus, and up to the ryokan. Calli tried starting the conversation again at various points of the journey, but about halfway on the bus ride finally settled on remaining in awkward silence.

The concierge picked up on this awkwardness almost immediately, and she got them checked in as quickly as possible before a fight could break out in the lobby. Once they were in their room, it wasn’t their problem anymore.

The room itself was beautiful, Japanese style with luxury in every corner. It went sadly unappreciated by its occupants due to the mood currently permeating the air. Kiara knew this was mostly her fault. Perhaps she took Calli’s news a little too close to the heart. She was sure there was probably a good reason, but she was too furious at Calli for lying to her for so long that she couldn’t cool herself down.

They wordlessly unpacked their things and got ready for dinner. There were many different exotic Japanese dishes, which Kiara had a sneaking suspicion was just food that they sold to foreigners that didn’t know better that most Japanese didn’t actually eat this stuff. The most interaction that the two of them had during this time period was when the staff gave them sake, which Kiara passed off to Calli, who took it without saying a word.

Having gone back to their room, they still had some time to chill before they had to stream.

“I’m going to get a massage,” Kiara said. “I think I just need to be alone for a while,”

Calli nodded wordlessly on the bed. Kiara was starting to feel guiltier with each passing minute. She had gone off on Calli incredibly hard, and she had never given her a chance to explain herself properly. Kiara loved to talk, so she knew the importance of communication, and that it was a two way street. And she had a done a pretty piss poor job of letting Calli drive her opinions.

Vowing to listen to her when she got back, she went to the masseuse for the pain she felt every day in her body, and the pain that currently afflicted her heart. She treated this like a way of repentance, asking the masseuse to dig deep, in a way that Kiara’s body might regret later. There was some light talk between the two, and she even asked for advice on how best to reopen the conversation and how to best apologize. The old lady seemed very wise, and proposed that she take Calli somewhere special to apologize.

Emboldened with courage, she got dressed again and walked over to the room, and stepped inside, ready to get the apology started. When she walked in, however, she just saw the empty room, with no one but their bags inside. Actually, this was not quite true, for on Calli’s bed she found a letter. Folded neatly into thirds, Kiara picked it up and opened it, and sure enough recognized Calli’s handwriting.

_Kiara, I’m really sorry for not telling you sooner about what I was doing. I’ve been keeping a pretty big secret from you, and it wasn’t fair. You said you needed to be alone, so I’ve taken that to heart._

_From,_

_Calli_

Kiara read the letter word for word several times. “You said you needed to be alone, so I’ve taken that to heart”? What did she mean by that? That sounded pretty ominous. She put the letter down and got dressed, and went down to the concierge. Once there, she asked her if she had seen Calli.

“Oh, you’re friend? Yes, she said that she was going out. She didn’t know when she would be back, it might be a while,” she said cheerfully. “I told her the blizzard was going to get worse, but she said that she was used to these temperatures, so she’d be fine!”

Now Kiara was even more worried. What reason could Calli have for leaving the ryokan?

 _Is-is she leaving me for good?_ Came the worrying thought. Now that she thought it, it buried itself deep into her mind and would not let go. Her stomach became a pit of despair, upset, not helped by the unsatisfactory dinner that she had had earlier. She rushed back to her room to grab her winter coat and gloves, and rushed out into the snow herself.

 _I’m sorry_ she thought. _I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!_ Kiara’s thoughts were running wild; they could no longer contain themselves and bore fruit to more worries and concerns. Will I ever see her again? Does she hate me now? What am I going to tell the other HoloEN girls? What do I say to Jenma? Why was I so mean? Why can’t I find her? These thoughts were vicious and relentless, each one predicting more and more horrible outcomes, so much so that it was clouding her vision.

Which is why she didn’t see the sudden hole in the road she was walking on, and her foot sank much deeper than she thought, causing her to lose her balance and fall face forward into the snow. She didn’t move when she landed, only letting the cold snow and wind beat down on her.

 _Well isn’t this familiar_ she thought. _Honestly, I think I prefer having my guts scattered in the snow, it hurts way less then how I feel now._ She could only curse herself over and over. She finally took her face out of the snow, the cold too much for her. And there she was. Pink hair with white earmuffs, a black form fitting, stylish winter jacket and a purple checkered scarf. She was even wearing the matching gloves that Kiara had gotten back in Sapporo as a joke.

“CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLIIII!!!” she screamed. This was not going to end like her dream. She pulled out her badge from her pocket and waved it in front of her seal that unlocked in response. She went for an incomplete transformation, fiery wings sprouting from her back, but the rest of her body was still human. She lifted off the ground and rushed forward as fast as her wings would carry her. 100 meters…50…40..20…she was so close! And then Kiara crossed an intersection, and too late looked to the left to see a truck bearing down on her from the side. She couldn’t react, she couldn’t dodge, and there was nothing she could do but close her eyes and await the incoming death.

Waiting…waiting…waiting…

“?” Kiara was confused. Where was the cold steel? Then she felt something different. She was enveloped in a warmth so pure, so beautiful. Calli had rushed forward at lightning speed and grabbed her out of the way.

“I told you Death-sensei I got this, you don’t need to intervene!” Calli shouted to the unrelenting air.

“Eh?” everything had happened so fast that Kiara still didn’t really have time to react. She was appreciative of Calli’s warmth, but it didn’t properly register in her mind what exactly had happened.

“Listen, Kiara I need to tell you something, and I’m going to speak my mind!” Calli said firmly, grabbing Kiara by both her shoulders.

“Eh?”

“The reason that you’re here is because I asked Death-sensei to put you here! Up until this point, because of your fiery nature, Death-sensei didn’t believe you could behave yourself properly and live like a normal human! That’s why you’ve been in dimensions that contain equally fantastical existences as well, with hydras, cyclops, griffins and more!” she expelled at lightning speed. “I had to convince Death-sensei to put you in this dimension, because you said you wanted to sing for the whole world! The condition that I had to accept was to watch over you to make sure you didn’t use your phoenix powers! Death-sensei has the power to change people’s fates, so if you ever used your latent power, he’d rewrite your fate to die right then and there, and you’d move on to the next dimension and you’d never get another chance!” Using her rap skills Calli got out these words without Kiara being able to get a word in edgewise. All she could do was watch in awe.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she found her voice.

“Calli you’re so warm…” she said in a daze. Calli realized that she was holding Kiara with a death grip, and let go quickly, standing up.

“I’m so sorry Kiara, is your arm ok?” she asked, worry in her eyes.

“I’m fine…I’m fine…” Kiara replied, standing up herself, brushing the snow off. So much has happened in so little a time.

“Is all that true? Death-sensei was really gonna kill me?” It was certainly hard to believe that the truck was some sort of coincidence.

“Yeah. At the ski lodge, he was going to kill you with a nearby fallen tree…thankfully I was able to get there in time…” Calli said.

“And…you’re the reason that I’m here in the first place?”

“Yeah…”

“But…why? Why did you do all this and go this far just for me?” Kiara asked. The wind of the blizzard picked up, mimicking the tumultuous scene before it.

“Because…because…because I…” Calli started, but the wind picked up even stronger, taking her words with them.

“WHAT!? I can’t hear you!” Kiara shouted.

“Because I…” Calli tried to shout back, but the wind took them away again.

“WHAT!?” The wind immediately died down to a standstill.

“BECAUSE I WANTED TO SUPPORT THE DREAM OF THE WOMAN I LOVE!” Calli screamed to the night. The echo of her words lasted for what seemed like forever. Both of them stood there to the spot like statues. Calli grew seven shades of red on the spot, having declared her intentions so clearly and strongly in a way that would surely cause Future Calli to cringe for thousands of years and lifetimes to come. She turned around, unable to look Kiara in the eye, burying her face in her hands.

“Calli…” Kiara said, tears flowing freely. She was so overwhelmed with emotions. She always knew, otherwise she’d never be so open about her feelings, but to hear it so clearly from Calli drove an arrow straight through her heart. She couldn’t even make fun of Calli’s unfortunate timing.

“Calli…please turn around so I can at least apologize and thank you properly…” Kiara whispered. She held out her hand, with the gloves that matched Calli’s. Calli turned around, tears in the corner of her eyes. She reached out, and clasped Kiara’s hand tightly. Kiara drew Calli in and gave her a deep kiss. Calli was half expecting this, and allowed herself to be taken in and reciprocated. They kissed for a while, just enjoying each other, and then separated, resting their foreheads on each other.

“Thank you…” Kiara said with a smile. "Ich werde dich immer lieben egal was die zukunft bringen mag..."


	5. Epilogue

Kiara pulled up to Narita International by way of taxi. As the main Tokyo airport, it was obviously bustling and crazy. Even still though, with the large amount of people the airport looked ridiculously clean. This was just one of many aspects of Japan that she loved so much that motivated her to spend as much time as she had in the country. A year ago when she came to Japan she had left by train, hopes springing eternal of what she thought would have been a lucrative career. That career did not come to fruition as she had planned, but in its stead she had found a completely new opportunity.

 _When God closes a door, I thought he shut a window or two while he was at it_ she thought to herself, smiling wryly. _Maybe he actually opened a window this time…_ She had never expected to find her way into Hololive, but now it was an inseparable aspect of her daily life now.

“Kiara, grab your bags out of the trunk, we need to get them checked and you through screening” said a voice behind her. Jenma was accompanying Kiara, helping with the transition process. She was blonde for the most part, but had purple highlights on the inside of her hair. The halo she usually had over her head had been made invisible for the sake of keeping everything a secret. Looking at her first glance you would not be able to tell that Jenma was her manager. She didn’t look that much older than Kiara, and she was dressed extremely casually in a Miko t-shirt, Bloom face mask and jeans. The only thing that looked remotely official about her was the manager ID card hanging around her neck on a lanyard.

Kiara could not thank Jenma enough for everything she’s done for her up until now. She wasn’t as experienced with streaming like some of the other Holo girls, and there were a lot of issues that she didn’t know how to deal with. Jenma had been with her every step of the way, giving advice for troubleshooting issues with Live2D and OBS, letting her use her computer and internet for streaming, coming all the way out to Kiara’s house to give her documents and check up on her (which took anywhere from a half hour to an hour depending), and just in general being a shoulder to cry on, which was used extensively in those first two months of hardship and struggles.

“All right, I’m coming!” She called over, and went to help take the luggage out. As sad as it was, Calli wouldn’t be joining the two of them today. She was a busy reaper and currently had three or four songs in the works that were still being made. Kiara wasn’t even sure of the exact number; Calli was so secretive and worked all the time, so she never got to see her. While the two of them had grown incredibly close over the homiemoon, they had both agreed afterwards to put the intimate relationship on hold for a while. This was partially because they were both so busy with Hololive, but also if they got too close to each other so quickly, then it would make the separation harder to bear. Kiara had already cried at their karaoke stream they did together, it was hard enough as it was.

They quickly got into the airport together, and rushed over to check her bags in. They had spent the last couple weeks packaging and sending various items that Kiara owned by mail, like clothes, bedding, her PC and souvenirs for friends and family. Even then, Kiara still had a total of five bags to check in, not including her carry-on. She had spent such a long time getting rid of makeup and clothes and the like that she didn’t use or need anymore, and she STILL had so much to take back with her. Thankfully, she had Jenma with her now, and her family waiting for her at home to help when she arrived, though she was worried about whether they would all make it back to her home country. She would just have to trust in the system, but she had been burned many times, an impressive feat for a phoenix.

Going through the screening process was simple enough, though it did have extra steps that needed to be taken for the pandemic. The lady manning the x-ray machine was kind enough, especially for her position. She even asked about Kiara’s feathers, asking where she got such beautiful earrings. Putting her hands over them to shield from view the fact that they were not earrings, she only laughed in response.

Finally, after what seemed longer than a year, she found herself standing in front of the gate that would take her home. Kiara and Jenma had made good time, and there were still 24 minutes left until she had to board. She turned to face her manager.

“Thank you so much Jenma…for everything! I really don’t think I’ve done enough to warrant all the help and support you’ve given me all these months! And how am I gonna repay all that? By streaming at the most goddawful times for you, hehe!” Kiara started laughing.

“So…business as usual then? When have you ever streamed at a time that wasn’t just completely awful?” Jenma replied, eyebrows raised.

“Hey, do the morning streams not count for anything?”

“You forget that I’m pretty much on the same sleep schedule as you, except I actually have to wake up at 7 am to manage your schedule and help behind the scenes!”

“No one asked you to be up _every_ single time I’m streaming, I can control myself!”

“Oh so like when you made babies with Calli’s pu-“ Kiara raised her hand to stop Jenma.

“Point taken,” she said bluntly. The both of them erupted in laughter. Their comedy routine complete, they gave each other a warm hug.

“But for real, take care of yourself OK? If you don’t then who is gonna tell me to do the same?” Kiara said. Letting go of each other, they waited for the boarding process to begin. Jenma offered to go get drinks from a nearby vending machine, and Kiara gladly accepted the offer.

Waiting a while, Kiara felt a hand on her shoulder, and she put her hand on Jenma’s and turned around to accept the drink. However, to her surprise what she saw was not the cheerful face of her manager, but the gentle face of Calli. Jenma was off to the side, giving them some space.

“Calli!” Kiara exclaimed, shocked to her core. “I thought you were too busy right now, that’s why we had the karaoke stream so we could properly say goodbye!” Kiara grabbed Calli’s hand and brought it up to her face, feeling the warmth through her face mask, enjoying the sensation deeply.

“After thinking about it, there was no way I would let you go, so long as I have the ability to see you, I’d be there, no matter what,” said Calli. “I pulled what little strings I had left with Death-Sensei to teleport me here to see you off. I can’t teleport back, but I’ll just take a taxi with Jenma back,” she said. “Oh speaking of Death-Sensei, he told me he’s going to let up a bit on your Fate, assuming of course you stop using your damn phoenix powers!”

“No promises you know, it’s pretty cold where I come from, I might need to heat myself up with some phoenix flame!”

“Kiaraaaaaaa” Calli warned, like scolding a child.

Calli grabbed Kiara’s shoulders, quickly took off their masks and gave Kiara a kiss, in front of everyone. Kiara wasn’t complaining, but it was so out of character for Calli to be this forward, especially in a public setting like this. They separated quickly and put their masks back on before someone took issue and reported them.

“There, that should motivate you to hold yourself back…warm enough for you?” she said.

“I don’t know about you, but I think I could go a whole lifetime without you after that!” Kiara giggled. “What happened to keeping the relationship neutral for now?” Then she had an idea.

“Hold on Calli, give me a second…” she trailed off, and then reached behind her ears. Calli looked curiously as Kiara shifted her hands around, finding a purchase, and then she pulled, wincing as she did.

“Woah, Kusotori what are you doing!?” said Calli with alarm. Kiara extended out her hands, and in them were the feathers that usually lay right behind her ears.

“I want you to have these, Calli! The down of a Phoenix! These will never rot away, no matter how long time passes, so long as I live and breathe!”

“But…Kiara those are YOUR feathers. You told me yourself, these are your identity as a Phoenix! What if something happens while you’re away!? I don’t wanna be morbid here, but if you die…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. Kiara took her hand.

“Then they’ll be with you, and I can’t think of a better place they could be. Besides, look!” Kiara lifted her hair and tilted her head back and forth. Calli saw that little feathers were already starting to form where the previous feathers were located. Kiara let her hair fall back into place.

“It’s OK…really!” Calli looked at the feathers in her hands, tears welling up in her eyes.

“I…I don’t have anything that I can give you to keep me close by…” she said, trying to keep her emotions under control. Kiara gave her a hug, embracing her tightly.

“You’ve given me more than you know,” she said. “You gave me a life here!”

For Calli, the one who only takes lives, this was the last straw. The tears flowed freely, endlessly. She buried her face in Kiara’s shoulder so that no one had to see her crying, and Kiara patted her on the back. After a minute passed, Calli regained her composure enough to separate. Still sniffing, she waved goodbye.

“Make sure to visit OK? I promise to do the same!” she said, a smile finally forming on her face. Kiara grabbed her carry-on bag and started making her way through the gate.

“Of course!” she called back.

“Kiara wait, I need to ask you something before you go, it’s important…please…” Calli called out to her, voice fading. Kiara turned around quickly.

“What is it Calli?”

“I just want to know…there were a bunch of dimensions that I could have picked to fulfill your dream. I wasn’t sure what would be best, so I just kinda chose this one without really thinking. Did…did I choose right? Are you happy here?” Calli asked, uncertainty building. Kiara could only return with the most sincere smile to ever grace all present.

“It’s the world you picked out for me! “ She said, beaming. “It’s a wonderful world, Calli!”

**Author's Note:**

> Credit for the German phrase goes to Vindycator!
> 
> Thank you for reading this! I've never written anything with the intention of publishing before, but I was inspired to try! Thank you Calli, for her song "Off with Their Heads" to motivate me to start creating, the KFP employees in pre-chat who encouraged me to keep going, and Kiara, the inspiration for all of this, who has me trying my best every single day! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!


End file.
